Where's Thomas Pynchon?

CNN tracks down literary world's deliberate enigma

June 5, 1997
Web posted at: 10:35 p.m. EDT (0235 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Thomas Pynchon is an enigma shrouded in a
mystery veiled in anonymity.

Among America's most significant writers, Pynchon's five
novels have been critical and sales successes. His latest,
"Mason & Dixon" -- thick with words and complexity -- sits on
the best-seller lists of The New York Times and Los Angeles
Times. Its mere publication was considered a literary event.

Yet, you won't see Pynchon hawking his wares on Oprah's book
club. You won't find him signing his name for fans down at
the corner bookstore.

He so shuns publicity that he doesn't allow his likeness to
be used on book jackets. All known photographs of the man
date to the early 1950s. Until Nancy Jo Sales of New York
Magazine tracked him down last year, no reporter had
interviewed him in four decades.

When a CNN camera crew caught up with Pynchon in Manhattan
recently, he phoned back to strongly request that he not be
pointed out to viewers in any videotape (a request
which, after much debate, CNN opted to honor).

"Let me be unambiguous," he said. "I prefer not to be
photographed."

The Greta Garbo of American letters

Pynchon's oh-so-low profile has earned him the sobriquet as
the Greta Garbo of American letters.

Some of his fans wonder if he really exists or might really
be several people writing under a pseudonym. He's a popular
topic in cyberspace and, until the arrest of Theodore
Kaczynski, was even supposed by some to be the elusive
Unabomber.

But there are some indications that the 60-something Pynchon
may be cultivating anonymity for his own playful purposes --
and to set himself apart. Clearly, the more obscure he makes
himself, the bigger the buzz becomes.

"I think the mystery helps a lot," says Pynchon devotee Ed
Conklin. "Because nobody knows who he is, so people talk
about who he might be."

Pynchon himself rejects any characterizations of him as a
recluse, telling CNN that "my belief is that recluse is a
code word generated by journalists ... meaning, 'doesn't like
to talk to reporters.'"

He has proven himself willing to step out of the shadows from
time to time -- but on his own terms.

When actor John Larroquette started making references to
Pynchon on his TV sitcom, the writer -- through his agent, of
course -- contacted the show to offer the suggestions and
corrections.

And in the early 1980s, the Anderson Valley Advertiser, a
small newspaper in Northern California, began getting letters
from a writer called Wanda Tinasky, taking some hard swipes
at powerful literary figures -- Alice Walker and critic John
Leonard among them.

Now it is widely believed by literary scholars that Pynchon
was Wanda Tinasky. And those letters have been collected in
book form.

But after seeing this story on CNN, Pynchon called to say for the first time on record, "I did not write those letters. This has been a hoax that I've had nothing to do with. I'm sorry it's gone on as long as it has."

Mystery turns out to be convention

Pynchon's enigmatic reputation has created an aura of mystery
about him. But the truth turns out to be not quite so exotic,
according to Sales. He leads a somewhat conventional life in
New York City.

"He shops at neighborhood stores. He lunches with other
writers. He spends weekends in the countryside with his
family," she says.

Indeed, he is so conventional that you might not know him if
you saw him. While CNN agreed not to isolate him and identify
him specifically, he does happen to be among the people you
will see in street scenes in the movie accompanying this
story.